Roger Daltrey struggled with the early songs in ‘The Who’.
The 72-year-old singer, who made up one quarter of the English rock band, has admitted his interest as a blues artist clashed with the vision of his band mate and guitarist Pete Townshend who wrote "quirky" songs on "up-to-date" subject matters, which he couldn’t understand.
Speaking to The Times newspaper, the music legend said: "Pete can write the quirkiest bloody thing and mostly I know where he’s coming from, but I did struggle with the early songs.
"I was a blues singer and suddenly it’s ‘I’m a Boy’, which is about [being] transgender. It’s so up-to-date, it’s unreal.
"Pete [Townshend] was an intellectual, even when he was young. He always had a different slant on the world, and he could be very moody."
And the father of five – who has sons Simon, Jamie, Mathias, and daughters Willow and Rosie – has admitted he had to tame Pete’s "airy-fairy" thoughts for upcoming singles.
He explained: "I try to bring Pete down to earth when he gets too airy-fairy. Like when he first did ‘Quadrophenis’ the music kept stopping. Why? But since I realised I could be Joe Blow, I could be the audience as well as the singer, Pete’s lyrics made sense because they speak to you, not at you."
Meanwhile Roger believes the sixties band, which has since lost drummer Keith Moon in 1973 at 32 years old and bassist John Entwistle in 2002 aged 57, should have never worked.
He explained: "We were completely different people and it shouldn’t have worked, but it did"
"John was quiet, with a wicked with that could have you in stitches. And what more can you say about Moony, except he was an absolute eccentric? He probably had a little bit of autism in him. You couldn’t hide Keith in a crowd either. Visually he stands out a million miles. I can’t speak for me. I’ve never seen myself in a crowd."
However, Roger regrets not doing more tours and live gigs with the group.
He said: "I would have liked to have done more live shows when Keith was alive, but I understand how pressured Pete felt and why he has a love-hate relationship with the road.
"I would have loved more people to see the Who as we were because we used to frighten audiences to death."
Roger Daltrey struggled with The Who’s early songs
